Greetings.

I have to say I'm surprised at how much reaction there was to the story about flagging student attendance at Gophers games. I got a ton of e-mails about it.

I have to say, having perused those e-mails, some consistent themes emerged:

As for why students aren't always filling the student section?
-A ton of people said he was because of the early game starts. Well, I have news for you: Thanks to TV, those early starts are here to stay for the near future. It was noted by several folks that students arriving late for early games is not exactly unusual, even in places like Wisconsin. Somebody sent me a link to a story lamenting the same situation at Penn State!

-A couple people noted that they thought a number of fans used their kids' student status to purchase tickets, then found they couldn't enter games without a student ID. One person said they know of at least two dozen parents who were in that situation.

-One person mentioned that, it being the first truly nice weekend of the fall, some students from rural backgrounds might have gone home to help their families with field work.

As for favored ways to solve the problem?

--Lots of folks -- I'm guessing they're not students -- are for raising student ticket prices. The theory is that would eliminate less enthusiastic fans from buying tickets and make those who do buy them more likely to use them.

--Many like the idea of making fewer tickets available to students.

It will be interesting to see what the U does going forward.

By the way, here's a post-practice update: Coach Tim Brewster said that center Jeff Tow-Arnett, five weeks post-surgery to repair a broken leg, looked good in practice Wednesday. Brewster said it is not outside the realm of possibility that Tow-Arnett could get into Saturday's game.